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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Ask a Korean! News: China Cracks Down on North Korean Restaurants

This is interesting. Yonhap News is reporting that China is cracking down on North Korean restaurants operating in China. There are several hundred North Korean restaurants in China, which serve as a valuable revenue generator for the North Korean regime. In an unprecedented move, the Chinese government are coming down hard on whether the restaurant workers have the appropriate visas, whether health regulations are being met, whether the restaurant is properly licensed to sell their wares (which include souvenirs from North Korea, etc.) As these regulations were loosely enforced previously, most North Korean restaurants are expected to pay a fine, or in some cases shut down.

The Korean is always hesitant to jump to any conclusion when it comes to North Korea, but this is an encouraging sign.

Got a question or a comment for the Korean? Email away at askakorean@gmail.com.

When you say north korean restaurants in china do you mean only north korean government/state sponsored restaurants? What about korean-chinese owned restaurants? I wonder if this chinese crackdown could lead to indiscrimate action against all korean restaurants in china.

North Korean restaurants in China almost always prominently advertise themselves as such, so I doubt there'll be much confusion between the two. We're probably looking at ones like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyongyang_(restaurant_chain)

You do realize that the main reason for cracking down in the restaurants is more about getting illegal North Koreans back to North Korea right? The nuclear issue may contribute a little, but the social atmosphere in China right now is more negative to both North and South Koreans rather than just South Koreans as it was a year ago.

If you protested against sending North Koreans back to North Korea a year ago, why are you supporting this now?

I don't think we can be sure of the reasons right now. But any cynic/optimist with a Confucian background would read between the lines and assume that this is just a way for both parties to save some face while closing down North Korean revenue streams.

This is one of the first times I've seen The Korean post something that I don't really understand. Why is "cracking down" on Korean restaurants a more encouraging sign than what I've been reading for weeks? China stepping up inspections of trade goods in and out of N.Korea. According to the article by 2011 China was 83% responsible for all it's import and export trade. Banking is another sphere that the U.N. and U.S. have been pressuring China to tighten. All of these other things seem much more significant to me than a couple hundred Korean restaurants.

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About TK

The Korean is a Korean American living in Washington D.C. / Northern Virginia. He lived in Seoul until he was 16, then moved to Los Angeles area. The Korean refers to himself in the third person because he thinks it sounds cool.